After being at Stanford for the past three weeks, we finally made it back home to Berkeley. The Stanford team decided that Paul could go home as long as he didn't develop any fevers or other infections. He's still feeling pretty sick (exhausted, nauseated and no appetite). It's been a real struggle trying to go through the engrafting process while battling the flu. Paul's white blood cell count dropped, so they had to give him another Neupogen shot to boost his counts. His platelets are coming back, but slower than they might if it weren't for this nasty flu. Paul will have to maintain being in isolation for the next few weeks, especially now that flu season is rampant in California. Although both Paul and Tim had their flu shots back in October, the particular strain of flu that's out there doesn't match the flu vaccine. Plus, because of all the chemos Paul was given, it pretty much wiped out his immune system again.

We're now scheduled to go back to Stanford on Tuesday January 2 for lab tests and more decisions about when other benchmarks can take place. Such as not needing to wear the mask except when he's at the hospital, when his Hickman port can be removed, and when he can get off the low microbial diet. We're hoping these can happen some time in mid-January. Tim is recovering from the flu as well, although he is recovering much faster than Paul thanks to his intact immune system.

Even though we're both pretty wiped out, it is nice to be home. We had hoped to be home by New Year's, and looks like we just squeaked in there. We went for a short walk today, just to try to build up our strength since we’ve mostly been sitting around the Stanford apartment or going off to the hospital.

Pale Swallowtail on Shooting Stars (Aquilegia formosa), Crater Lake Highway, Oregon.